~* CRAZY ABOUT NUMB3RS! *~

There's a new show at AXN that I'm hooked on: NUMB3RS. It's a "brainy new crime investigation drama".

From the producers and directors of blockbusters like Gladiator, Blade Runner and Enemy of the State – The Scott brothers (Ridley and Tony Scott) – comes television's brand new brainy crime series that is taking the world of television by storm!

Inspired by real cases and using real mathematics as a tool, Numb3rs offers a refreshing take on police work, and showcases how the application of mathematics often reveals unexpected and surprising answers to the most complex of questions.

Numb3rs follows the exploits of FBI Special Agent Don Eppes, as he recruits his prodigious brother and math whiz, Charlie, to break the seemingly unsolvable crimes he faces everyday. From murders to virus outbreaks, Charlie puts his mathematical ability to practical use in criminal forensics, and his perspective on the cases often proves to be the perfect complement to his brother's sleuthing skills.

I think that actor {David Krumholtz} who plays Charlie is cute ;-) I am quite disturbed that I find him so sexy when he furiously chalks away complex mathematical formulas on his blackboard. That is so... hmm... geeky of me. *LOL*

Numb3rs airs every Monday 9pm at AXN.

~* HAPPY HALLOWEEN! *~

Last week, we had our usual Halloween party at the office for the employees' children, cousins, nephews and nieces. Each group had different themes ranging from The Flintstones, Dora the Explorer, The Wild Thornberrys and my group: The Incredibles. I dressed up as Violet! :)

~* NOW PLAYING: Taning by Imago *~

TANING {remix}by Imago
Sa'n mapupulot ang pag-asa
may katuwiran ba ang sala
ngiti ko ang iyong galak
langit ko ang iyong kandungan

Permiso sa isang araw na makasama ka
abiso ng pusong bulag na humahanga

Tama bang aminin na nating may taning
tong pag-ibig natin
dakila man walang kasaysayang kakapit
sa bulag na pag-ibig

Sa'n hihingi ng patawad
kung walang dalang dahilan
tangis ko ang iyong pagluha
nais ko ang iyong kalayaan

Permiso sa isang araw na makasama ka
abiso ng pusong bulag na humahanga

Tama bang aminin na nating may taning
tong pag-ibig natin
dakila man walang kasaysayang kakapit
sa bulag na pag-ibig

Permiso sa isang araw na makasama ka
abiso ng pusong bulag na humahanga

tama bang aminin na nating may taning...

~* BUSY WORK WEEK *~

I was so busy with work the other week coz we had our Telecine Workshop wherein colorists from the Philippines along with those from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Indonesia attended a 3-day seminar/workshop organized by us. [Colorists are those techie/creative guys in post-production houses who do color corrections, put specific hues and can even turn a scene shot in broad daylight into a believable night scene.]


DAY 1 - Oct. 13 (THURS)

The first day was a seminar conducted at Dusit Hotel Nikko.

that's me having lunch with the guys from Hong Kong.

It's interesting how these guys (along with those fr. Taiwan) have English names that are totally different from their Chinese names. It took me quite awhile to associate their English names with them since i was more familiar with their Chinese names during the registration/preparation process.


time for the traditional class picture!

DAY 2 - Oct. 14 (FRI)

The second & third days were conducted in a Makati post-production house for hands-on training.

At the end of the day, I accompanied the two Indonesians to shop at the Filipiniana department in SM. One of them wanted to purchase a traditional Filipino costume for his girlfriend. It so happened that I had the same frame as his girlfriend so I ended up "modelling" the piña jusi maria claras there. After shopping, we ate at Banana Leaf Asian Cafe.

while the class was busy inside the telecine suite...
... we were right outside doing lotsa picture-taking to kill our boredom ;-)
the entertainment imaging team: girl power!

DAY 3 - Oct. 15 (SAT)

I had a funny fashion emergency come Saturday... So I was at the PAL office early 9am to accompany one of the Taiwanese participants in having his flight booking changed. I was talking to my boss on my celfone and as I glanced at my feet donned with one of my fave strappy slip-ons I suddenly blurted:"Oh no! I have a fashion emergency!" and proceeded telling my boss my unfortunate footwear disaster. Ya see, I haven't used those slip-ons for maybe like a year already and it was just stored in its shoe box inside my shoe cabinet. That was probably why it got crumbly. Lo and behold, the soles were cracked and the heels were slowly disintergating! Good grief! I had to walk gently by lifting up my feet like a soldier marching and I was careful not to drag my heels on the pavement. Good thing that Greenbelt was just nearby so by around 11am, my boss and I hit the mall.

Now the thing is that I did not like any shoes from the tiangge-type/great bargain stores at the old Greenbelt building. Thus, we proceeded to the posh, chi-chi stores in Greenbelt 2. My choices were between a kitten heel strappy black sandals from M)phosis priced at P1,500 and a cute ruffles-inspired sandals from T Studio at P1,695. I thought I might as well buy the one from T Studio coz the simple shoe design of the M)phosis shoes was not worth my unplanned-more-than-1K credit card swipe. It was such a nice kikay pair of shoes but dammit, I don't really buy shoes priced at that range. I think the reasonable price for sandals is just P800-P1,000+ . I think it's impractical to buy such outrageously expensive shoes but what the heck... if I dared to travel by foot thru the walkway to Glorietta to shop somewhere less expensive like maybe Celine, Mendrez, Rusty Lopez or Le Donne (where I usually buy my sandals/slip-ons) my precious frail aqua slip-ons would have totally crumbled! Oh well.

oh the poor thing just gave up on me! haha!


pretty (damn expensive) shoes!



They had their graduation and certificate-awarding in the afternoon...


these are the colorists with the UK-based colorist/instructor. Spot the F4-ish HK cutie in blue green... he's my fave participant ;-) he's so adorably cute! ;-)



We then proceeded to Masas at Greebelt for their farewell dinner. I just realized there that one should know how to describe every Filipino dish to the foreigners. It was quite a challenge to describe Rellenong Bangus, Adobo, sansrival and leche flan to them. Funny how the Indonesian joked that the crunchy crablets should be called "pedophilia" :P


all of us shared one long table at the mezzanine of Masas.We had sinigang na bulalo, pork adobo, crablets, crispy shrimps, bicol express, rellenong bangus, adobong kangkong among other things. they found the leche flan too sweet and most of them liked the sans rival over the leche flan.

we taught the taiwanese how one should know one's best anglewhen posing for the camera ;-)
Only in the Philippines: a b-day candle on a leche flan!it was HM's b-day the next day so we arranged for a little b-day treat.[HM is from the Kodak Hong Kong office]

We gifted Kevin Shaw (UK-based colorist/workshop instructor) with a decorative miniature jeepney from Balikbayan Handicrafts


After dinner, I accompanied two of the Hong Kong guys at SM for a last-minute buying frenzy of dried mangoes,etc. They bought all the different brands on sale and I kidded them that they were like some sort of product testers for dried mangoes! They also got different variations of pili nuts.

Anyway, I therefore conclude that the dried mangoes are really best-sellers with our foreign guests. Aside from the Hong Kong guys, the Indonesians also brought home some dried mangoes.

All in all, I really liked the experience of organizing the workshop for the Asian colorists. It's so interesting to interact with them despite the slight barrier in language (even though they can speak English, their pronunciation is still different -- eg. Over dinner, I thought the Indonesian was asking how many calories were the food I was eating... It turned out that he was asking me how many colorists there were in the Phils.! hehe!). And in some strange way, I was happy and willing to entertain/take care of them during their short stay... 'must be the trademark Filipino hospitality manifesting in me! ;-)

~* WHEN IT'S NOT FUNNY HA-HA *~

It's funny how we use the word "funny" when it's not meant to mean a "ha-ha" kind of funny.

Like when something smells bad, we say: "Hmm. That smells funny."
When somebody acts weird around us, we say: "Why are you acting funny around me?"
When we find something strange, we say: "Hmm. Funny, I didn't leave that door open when I left this morning."
And do you remember the lyrics of that 80s song "Love Makes No Promises"?

"Funny how the summer turns to fall
But now I feel the winter's chill
Funny how the beauty of it all
Has slipped away and fell away and died away..."

I think I have the wrong lyrics, but anyway, it went something like that.

So there. Those examples are not funny ha-ha, right?

POP QUIZ. So tell me how you read between these lines below:

1. "Ah ok. Kala ko parang nagkalimutan na eh. Funny, i had this impression that we're not in speaking terms. Hmm. "

That sounded like:

a) it was burning with sarcasm. he/she is definitely pissed off.
b) the person was in a joking mood and was expressing how funny ha-ha his/her impression was.
c) the person was sending out mixed signals... i'm not sure if he/she was angry or was just joking.

2." Ah geez! U must either be feigning ur being dense or ur memory lapse. Either way I know you're smart enough to know exactly what i mean. Or then again maybe you're just being your usual arrogant inconsiderate insensitive selfish flaky a-h*le self. Oh well. You'll get what you deserve."

That was:

a) just plain bitchy. nothing justifies such crass words.
b) a bitch with a cause. there must be a valid reason why such disparaging words were said.
c) very well-said. not bitchy at all.

3. Assume that it was me who said #1 and #2. Knowing me personally (yes, you, my dear gal pals in the real world) or virtually (yes, you blogmates and lurkers who only "know" me from my blog posts), would you say that I was a baaad, baaad person for saying those things?

a) yes [explain why and give me a sermon]
b) no [explain why and sumipsip sa akin. haha :P ]
c) it depends [sige, explain why para clear kung bakit gray area]

This should be pretty interesting! Please, please comment friends and uhh, the rest of the people out there ;) I'd sooo love to hear your thoughts about this. Especially the unbiased opinions of those who do not know the whole story behind this. But still, syempre, my dear Forces friends, be totally honest. Pagalitan nyo ako if needed ;)

Gooo. Comments! Comments!

~* DUBAI & MY BACK-TO-BACK NIGHT-OUT *~

My officemates and I went to see Dubai {Claudine Barretto/Aga Mulach/John Lloyd Cruz starrer} the other day at Greenbelt 3. It's shot & printed on Kodak film so it was technically an "official business" thing for us and we got to reimburse our movie tickets (yey! i love this job!) and get off work early to catch the 4:30pm screening. The movie's okay but I didn't cry like some viewers did. I dunno if maybe it was because I am not fond of John Lloyd at all. Aga is still such a cutie despite his age and father-figure status. Claudine, as usual, had this enviable super flawless skin (even on extreme close-ups!). I liked Milan more than Dubai. I was moved by Piolo Pascual's acting there. But anyway... Funny how I could relate in some of the scenes in Dubai. Since the theater was half-empty on a Thursday afternoon screening, I did not feel the need to tone down my comments. On that part wherein Aga made "indian" to Claudine, I blurted out: "tsk. he's just not that into you!". As for Aga's character, I was like: "See?! He's generally a nice guy to everybody but when it comes to girls, he's such an asshole!". [Aga's character helped out financially-burdened fellow-OCWs. He was portrayed as this very good "ulirang" brother to John Lloyd's character. BUT, he has non-serious relationships with both Claudine and Phoemela B.'s character.] Typical player. Sounds extreeeemely familiar. Nice guys whom you'd love to be friends with but it would be a very bad idea to be romantically involved with. Steer clear of these types. They will only break your heart. Hehe. Aga's character really hit close to home! Anyway, at the end of the movie, after breaking Claudine's heart and everything, he tells her: "I am very sorry for all the hurt I've caused you." with matching tears. Aww. As pointed out by my officemate: "See?! It doesn't matter how long it's been but at least he said sorry." Yes. Amen to that. It doesn't matter if someone broke your heart ages ago... years ago... Hearing that person apologize & admit to his mistakes, and realize that he has caused you pain is probably the greatest contributor to one's healing process. "SORRY" is such a short 5-letter word but to hear it heartfelt from someone would free your heart more than 10-folds from the resentment and anger that you've been harboring for so long. Sorry seems to be the hardest word to say (hmm, maybe along with "I love you"). I find it noble for a person to actually say that and really mean it.

~oO0Oo~

Last Friday, I went out with my sister to watch her acoustic band/friends at Corick's. The band's called "W2i". They performed an eclectic set of songs ranging from showband staples to r&b stuff to some alternative stuff. It's a cozy place where regulars jam with the band and have their 5 minutes or so glory on stage. My very own sister sang two songs with them. They were asking me to sing but hell no, not on a first visit! Haha.

After the gig, we went out for coffee (but I had green tea) at a nearby 24-hr coffee shop. My sister's band friends were nice fun people to converse with. We decided to call it a night (day?!) at around hmm past 3am, I think. I got home around 4am.

~oO0Oo~

Yesterday, Abbie called me up and asked if I'd like to go out and hang out with the rest of the girls. With Abbie being her "labo" self as usual, she ended up not joining us. I was with Tin and Apple. We went to Makati first to arrange menu and stuff for Apple's upcoming birthday bash at this relatively new bar called "Anna's Place" (yeah. such an imaginative name, right?! hehe). After being done with the b-day arrangements, we proceeded to BF Homes in Parañaque to check out this bar that they read a review of from FHM. I dunno the spelling but I think it was called Raff77 or something like that. The food was okay... we were like a bunch of famished chicks demanding them to hurry up with our quick order for potato wedges since it was already past 9pm and none of us had dinner yet ;P There was an acoustic band there that played typical pop/alternative stuff. I think they were called Candyflip. Looked like they were college kids. Anyway, the entire place was basically filled with college-looking kids who seemed to know almost everyone around. It felt like that cafe/bar in One Tree Hill. Haha.

Anyway, after the first set ended there, we proceeded to this interesting-looking bar (still in BF Homes) called I AM SAM. Better bunch of crowd than Raff's. There was no band playing, just loud club music. So after the waiter took our orders, we asked him the question most probably every freakin' newbie there asked: "So who's Sam?". Well, we found out that nobody there was named Sam and they really just got it from the Dakota Fanning movie which, by the way, had totally no relation at all whatsoever with a bar or a club or anything like that. Weird.

Had a cool time there. Their Kamikaze was not the usual mix I had in other bars. It seemed too strong for me coz, oddly, even with a full stomach (I just ate chicken lollipop w/ garlic rice at Raff's!) I totally felt tipsy. Gaaah. I tasted this drink called "White Russian" that Apple had. It was yummy! I'll order that the next time I'm in a bar...

Funny. So I can pass for 22 thereabouts? Haha. That's cool! I had a good time chatting with this cute guy from DLSU. I cannot say though if Apple and Tin were as pleased with the other guy beside them. Haha :P

Tin, that was fun! Take me to more night-outs like that ha! :)

~* ANNOYANCE. THE 'BOTS ARE HERE TOO *~

F*%#!!! Damn it, even the annoying [ro]bots are here na! Grrr. What used to be 'bots that were confined to YM chat rooms are now invading the very vogue blog community. Blogging must be the "IT" thing now. This part of the net used to be so quiet. Now the freakin' annoying bots are all over Blogger! The world is changing. There is a major unignorable population residing in the net... and the savvy marketers are wise to jump into it. I am a marketing person but damn that sneaky way of marketing one's site thru *royally* annoying bots! Bots belong to that list of cyber-culprits together with spam mail.

The bot-made comments started just this week. It came in trickles at first so I was just like "Hmm. Is my blog *this* hot?! Nah. I don't think so! But hmm." Haha. Anyway, you'd start getting suspicious if you start seeing everyone promoting their own freakin' site... At first it was a cold sores site so I was like "hmm. okaaay. gee. what a site." and then here comes d*ck-enlargement sites so I was like "WTF?!" It reminded me of bots pretending to be sexy at YM chatrooms so it dawned on me that these are most probably bots. Then there came ringtone sites. Online dating. E-books. Free music downloads. I dunno if it just happens if one's comment generator is Blogger's or if it also happens with Halo Scan users and the likes. Nevertheless, I don't want the hassle of setting up a new comment thingiemajig so I'm sticking with Blogger's comment feature and just decided to activate the word verification feature.

Sheesh. So that's why Blogger has this word verification feature now. *sigh* Sorry my dear friends (esp. those who usually comment and not merely lurk here) I had to turn on the word verification thing so that's about 3 more seconds of keyboard action for you. I hope you guys won't get tamad to comment because of that. Keep the interesting/thought-provoking/wonderful comments coming, okay? ;-) I am happy to see your comments!

Damn these bots. Such annoyance.

Grrness.

~* BEFORE SUNRISE *~

I was bumming around watching movies yesterday (Monster-in-Law, A Very Long Engagement and Before Sunrise) and decided to see Before Sunrise again. I think that was the 3rd time I've seen it. I just love the conversations. And of course, Ethan Hawke. It's a shame that Ethan Hawke is not really "big" nowadays as much as he was before in the 90s. And I have thought differently of him after he left Uma Thurman (what was he thinking?!?).

Anyway, the movie is basically one great interesting conversation about love and life. Here are some of my favorites:

Celine: You know, I've been wondering lately. Do you know anyone who's in a happy relationship?

Jesse: Uh, yeah, sure. Y'know, I know happy couples. But I think they lie to each other.

Celine: Hmf. Yeah. People can lead their life as I lie. My grandmother, she was married to this man, and I always thought she had a very simple, uncomplicated love life. But she just confessed to me that she spent her whole life dreaming about another man she was always in love with. She just accepted her fate. It's so sad. And in the same time, I love the idea that she had all those emotions and feelings I never thought she would have had.

Jesse: I guarantee you, it was better that way. If she'd ever got to know him, y'know, I'm sure he would have disappointed her eventually.

Celine: How do you know? You don't know them.

Jesse: Yeah, I know, I know. It's just, people have these romantic projections they put on everything. Y'know. that's not based on any kind of reality.

~oO0Oo~

Celine: If there's any kind of magic in this world, it must be in the attempt of understanding someone, sharing something. I know, it's almost impossible to succeed, but... who cares, really? The answer must be in the attempt.

~oO0Oo~

Jesse: You know what's the worst thing about somebody breaking up with you? Is when you remember how little you thought about the people you broke up with and you realize that is how little they're thinking of you. You know, you'd like to think you're both in all this pain but they're just like 'Hey, I'm glad you're gone!'.

My fave scenes:

1. THE LISTENING BOOTH - ahh, the exchange of looks and the uhh slightly uncomfortable silence.

There's a wind that blows in from the north,
And it says that loving takes its course.
Come here. Come here.
No I'm not impossible to touch,
I have never wanted you so much.
Come here. Come here.
Have I never lay down by your side?
Baby, let's forget about this pride.
Come here. Come here.
Well, I'm in no hurry.
You don't have to run away this time.
I know that you're jimmied,
but it's gonna be all right this time.
[song fades]


2. THE PHONE - Celine pretends to call her best friend and talks about Jesse. She asks Jesse to call his friend too. Ethan, Ethan, Ethan. *sigh*

Celine: Well... he convinced me. Well, actually I was [smiles] I was ready to get off the train with him after talking to him a short while. He was so sweet, I couldn't help it. [softly] We were in the lounge car, and he began to talk about him, as a little boy, seeing his great-grandmother's ghost. I think that's when I fell for him. Just the idea of this little boy with all those beautiful dreams. [emphatically] He trapped me.

Jesse: MmHmm [emphatically].

Celine: And he's so cute! He has beautiful blue eyes, [he closes his eyes] nice big lips, [back-pouts his mouth], greasy hair, [she laughs] I love it. He's kind of tall, and a little clumsy. [softly] I like to feel his eyes on me when I look away. [smiling] He kind of kisses like an adolescent, its so cute.

Jesse: What?

Celine: Yeah, we kissed. It was so adorable. As the night went on, I began to like him more and more. But I'm afraid he's scared of me. Y'know, I told him the story about the woman that kills her ex-boyfriend, and stuff. He must be scared to death. [Jesse begins to shake his head, slowly] He must be thinking I'm this manipulative, mean woman. I just hope he doesn't feel that way about me, because you know me, I'm the most harmless person. The only person I could really hurt is myself.

Jesse: I don't think he's scared of you. I think he's crazy about you.


3. THE PICTURE - Jesse steps back and takes Celine's picture by giving her this intense stare. Aww.

Jesse: [looking at her. He stops her dancing] Oh, wow.

Celine: What?

Jesse: Uh.... I'm gonna take your picture. [puts her at arms length, and stares] So I never forget you or, uh, or all this.

Celine: Okay. Me too.

[She stops and stares at him too. He leans over and they kiss. Eventually, they stop, and walk away holding hands.]